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STATEMENT 






eto'ftorli wi^it j|crl0n;i5attan w^tui'^ 



AS TO ITS 



DIFFERENCES 



WITH THE 



AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY 



MARCH, 1870. 




New-Yokk : 

S. W. GREEN, PRINTER, STEREOTYPER, AND BINDER, 

Corner of Frankfort and Jacob Streets. 

1870. 



J 



C'or-ONizATiON Office. Room 23 Bible Hotise^ I 
New-York, March 15, 1870. i 

At the regular monthly meeting of the Board of Control of the New- York 
State Colonization Society, held this day, the President of the Society, Hon. 
James W. Beekman in the chair, a statement, prepared by a committee pre- 
viously appoint^l, was reported complete, whereuixm the Board passed the fol- 
lowing resolution : 

Besolved, That the statement of this society, as to its differences with the 
American Colonization Society, prepared and now presented to the Board of 
Control, be adopted, and copies be given to persons interested in the cause of 
African colonization, whose minds may have been abused l)v the false state- 
ments put forth against this society. 

A true copy from the minutes of the Board. 

J. M. Goldberg, 

Recording Secrttai'y. 



STATEMENT 



New-Yokk State Colonization Society. 



It is known to many of the friends of the enterprise for colo- 
nizing people of color from the United States upon the coast 
of Africa that a serious difficulty has recently arisen to disturb 
the friendly relations previously existing between the ISTew- 
York State Colonization Society and the Amei'ican Coloniza- 
tion Society. The New-York State Society, although feeling 
keenly the course pursued by the latter society to break up such 
relations, has remained silent, in the fear that a public explana- 
tion of them might prove injurious to the cause, and in the hope 
that, wlien the directors of the x\merican Colonization Society 
should have the matter fully laid before them, they would 
take such action as should insure the return of kind feelings, 
and a hearty promotion of the great work in which both socie- 
ties have so long labored. That hope has been disappointed 
by the action of the American Colonization Society, at its 
annual meeting at Washington, in January, 1870; and the de- 
velopments there made have convinced the Board of Control of 
the ISTew-York State Colonization Society that greater mis- 
chief would ensue from a continued and silent submission to 
the acts it complains of, than can possibly arise from a pre- 
sentation to its friends of the true state of the case. 

It is well understood by those conversant with the prosecu- 
tion of enterprises of benevolence requiring contributions 
from the public for support, that it is very desirable, if not 
absolutely necessary to tlieir success, that separate organiza- 
tions, having similar plans, should not by rival agencies occupy 



tlie same field for obtaining aid. The history of the coloniza- 
tion enterprise in this country has furnished an illustration 
of this truth. The American Colonization Society, having its 
headquarters at "Washington, was formed in 1817, liaving for 
its single purpose the colonization of free people of color of the 
United States. In the language of its constitution, "Its atten- 
tion is to be exclusively directed to promote and execute a 
plan for colonizing, with their own consent, the free people of 
color of our country in Africa," etc. From tlie time of its or- 
ganization it prosecuted its work with contributions fnrnished 
to it by individuals, and by separate auxiliar}^ societies formed 
in many States, counties, cities, and villages. These societies 
collected funds, and were represented by their delegates at the 
annual meetings held at Washington. 

For several years prior to 1833, many persons friendly to the 
negro race had objected to the plans of the American Coloni- 
zation Society, as tending chiefly to fasten slavery in the slave- 
holding States, by removing from them those who had been 
emancipated, and among other things, used as evidence of the 
fact, was a resolution of the society, passed at its annual meet- 
ing in 1826, in the following form : 

" 2. Resolved, That its only object is, what it has at all times avowed, tht> 
removal to the coast of Africa, witli their own consent, of such people of 
color within the United States as are already free, and of such others as the 
humanity of individuals and the laws of dilferent States may hereafter liber- 
ate." 

It was also alleged that, wliile carrying emigrants to Africa, 
the same ships carried rum for sale to slave-traders there ; that 
some of the colonists were engaged in ])romotiiig the traffic in 
slaves ; that instead of efforts to civilize the native Africans, they 
were levying war upon them ; and that the removal of the emi- 
grants to Africa had l)een attended with fearful mortality. 
There was a color for some of these objections ; but although 
the friends of the cause in the Northern States were assured that 
the facts charged were highly exaggerated, and in the main un- 
just, it was difficult to resist the impression which they made, 
and, in the opinion of many benevolent men in the State of 
New-York, it was deemed necessary to the proper prosecution 
of the colonization ])lan that a colony should be formed on prin- 



dples more distinctly benevolent than were expressed in the 
constitution of the American Society. 

In the year 1833, the Maryland Colonization Society with- 
drew from the American, and began an independent colony at 
Cape Palmas. In the same year, this society, then known as 
the New- York City Colonization Society — conducted by sueli 
men as Dr. Milnor, Dr. Spring, Judge Duer, Anson G, Phelps, 
Esq., and others not less respected — resolved to form a model 
colony at Cape Mount, forty-five miles north of Monrovia. 
In the spring and summer of 1834, a plan of union, pro- 
posed by the Young Men's Colonization Society of Pennsyl- 
vania to this society, was accepted, and the two societies, with 
the consent of the American Colonization Society, founded 
a colony at Bassa Cove, on principles of Peace, Temperance, 
Education, and Civilization. As auxiliaries of the Ame- 
rican Colonization Society, the New- York and Pennsylvania 
societies contributed to it thirty per cent, afterward modified, 
on the proposition of the American Colonization Society, to 
ten per cent of their income. And so cordial was the con- 
sent of the American Colonization Society to this plan of 
separate action, that they not only recognized the right of 
these societies to an exclusive occupancy of those States for 
their work, but, by the following resolution, extended to them 
the same exclusive right to the State of New-Jersey as a 
collecting field, by a resolution passed in 1831: : 

" 4. Besoloed, That the State of New-Jersey shall be hereafter given up for 
the purpose of collections for the Colonization cause to the New- York Gity 
Auxiliary Society and the Young Men's Society of Pennsylvania on the sauifi 
terms as the States of Pennsylvania and New-York are now exclusively occu. 
pied as a field for colonizing exertions by said societies." 

A colony was subsequently formed at Sinou Eiver by the 
Louisiana and Mississippi Colonization societies. Thus four 
independent colonies were in progress, conducted according to 
the views of the different State societies, having their own 
governors and laws. 

This sej^arate and independent State action continued 
until 1839. During this period the experience of the 
promoters of the several enterprises indicated the neces- 
sity of a union, to secure harmony and efficiency of action, 



and a plan was devised and adopted to effect the object. 
The constitution of the American Society was changed, so 
as to pLace it in tlie control of a board of directors com- 
posed of delegates from State and territorial societies. 
As a part of tlie plan of nnion. the management of colo- 
nization in the States of Xew-Tork and Pennsylvania was 
expressly reserved to this and the Pennsylvania Society.* 

From tliat time, the American Colonization Society, np to 
Mai'ch, 1S09, invariably recognized the compact between 
that society and this as binding npon it and its othcers. At its 
annual meetings its directors had recognized it, and its agents 
were forbidden to make collections within what was deemed 
the territory of this society. It has now violated this compact 
under circumstances which the Xew-York State Colonization 
Society believes to be a breach of good faith, and of deep and 
lasting injury to the welfare of the Republic of Liberia, 
planted and hitherto sustained by the joint elibrts of all 
engaged in the entei-prise. 

Prior to the political troubles which commenced in 1S61, the 
New- York State Society had, in pursuance of the plan of imion, 
prosecuted its work by the diffusion of intelligence, through its 
secretary and agents, awakening the interest of the bene- 
volent throughout the State to the importance of founding 
and enlarging colonies in Africa, to be centres of Christian and 
civilizing inlluence, and the promotion of education, the 
industrial arts, and Christianity not only among the colonists, 
but their aboriginal neighbors. During this period, it not only 
made large collections, of which it appropriated many thousand 
dollars directly to the treasury of the American Society, and 
expended the residue in aid of the general enterprise, but 
awakened such an interest in the public mind that large sums 
were annually given directly to the American Society, by 
persons thus interested through its agency. 

At the commencement of the war, an indisposition to emi- 
grate was manifested throughout the whole negro population 
of our country. This appears from the fact that, with an over- 
liowing treasury, the American society was able during the 
war to send only the number of emigrants as follows : In 1861, 
* See Appendix A. 



fifty-four; in 1S62, sixty-fivse ; in 1863, twenty-six; in 1864:, 
twenty-three. In view of this fact, and the further fact that, 
while actively engaged in the political troubles which it was 
generally believed would result in great changes in the rela- 
tions of the negro population, there was an indisposition to 
contribute to the colonization enterprise, the Xew-York State 
Society in 1863 resolved to suspend its agencies, and reduce its 
expenses to the smallest sum consistent with the maintenance 
of its organization and the administration of trust funds Avhich 
had been given to it for educational purposes. "With the same 
object of economy, its Corresponding Secretary, Rev. Dr. 
Pinney, who had been for thirty years, as missionary, colonial 
governor, and secretary, in connection with the enterprise, 
voluntarily offered his resignation. It was, however, by the 
Board of Directors unanimously refused, and he was permitted 
leave of absence until a favorable time should arrive to renew 
their active operations. From this time, although not in active 
service, and for the greater part of the time without salary, 
he remained in connection with the society as its correspond- 
ing secretary. 

In August, 1866, tlie financial secretary applied to the jS^ew- 
York State Society for funds to aid to transport a party of emi- 
grants, or for permission to make an appeal for aid in this State, 
distinctlv recognizino- that tlie Board of Directors of the Ame- 
rican Colonization Society had directed that no such appeal be 
made here without our consent. He wrote : 

" You are aware that tJie Board of Directors have forbidden us to make, such 
appeals in States where tliere are societies. If it were not for this, and if the 
State societies were icUling that ice should plow in their fields, we should at 
once issue to our friends everywhere a call for aid, and I believe we should 
get it, get it liberally, and somewhat in the manner we did on a former occa- 
sion for the Herndon slaves ! The great States of Pennsylvania, Xew-Yorls, 
and Massachusetts used to be our main dependence in such emergencies !" 

The resolutions of the Board thus alluded to were as follows : 

1851. — "Resolved, That all appeals for funds, which the Executive Com- 
mittee of the Parent Society may desire to make in any State wliere there 
is an Auxiliary Society in active operation, should first be communicated to 
the proper agency of the State Society, and should in all cases be made 
through them, and that all collections so made should be passed to the credit 
of said Society on the books of the Executive Committee." 

1855. — " Besolved, That hereafter all appeals from the Corresponding Se- 



6 

cretary, the General Agent, or the Executive Committee, for funds for any 
purpose connected ■with the objects of the American Colonization Society 
in States -wherein auxiliary societies exist, shall be made only through said 
societies and under their direction." 

The !New-York State Society, at its first meeting, Septem- 
ber, 1866, after receipt of the letter from the financial secre- 
tary above mentioned, passed a resolution that, 

" In the event of the American Society not having ample funds for the object, 
this Society will not object to the American Society sending a collecting agent 
to our field, provided the funds collected be paid over to our treasurer, with 
tlie understanding that said sum shall be directed to defraying the expense 
of the emigrants named." 

This was transmitted, with letters explanatory, which ex- 
pressly informed the financial secretary that the measure 
was only a temporaiy one, to be terminated when the New- 
York State Society should resume active operations. 

Subsequently, in 1866, some collections were made in this 
State by the traveling secretary of the American Society, and 
in the early part of 1867 he came to New-York, and 
commenced a collecting agency here. He was received by 
the officers of the New- York State Society with cordiality, as 
coming under the permission given, and all the means within 
their power were extended to him to aid him in his work. 

Early in 1868, a meeting of friends of the cause was convened 
in the city of New- York, which recommended a renewal of 
the operations of the New- York State Colonization Society. 
Shortly after, a meeting of the board of directors was called, 
at which a resolution was passed appointing a recording se- 
cretary in place of Joseph B. Collins, Esq., who had died, to take 
charge of the oftice until tlie annual election, which should 
take place in the montli of May. It tlien became known that 
Dr. Pinney, who had been for some time in the Pacific States, 
was expected home, and an attempt was thereupon made by 
the traveling secretary to prevent his reelection to liis office. 
A letter of the traveling secretary upon the files of the Ame- 
rican Colonization Society at Washington, written nearly a year 
after, shows that this attempt was a part of a plan advised by 
a paid official of that society, to cause a difficulty in the New- 
York State Society, in such a manner as to get control of the 
trust funds it held. Tlie followinir is the extract: 



" Soon after I came liere, Rev. Dr. Tracy, in a letter to lue, said, ' Do try to 
reorganize the New-York Society. Have a qiiarrel and split if necessary, un- 
desirable as that would be. Bring Dodge and others to assert their rights 
and exert their power. Preserve the identity of the society under the charter, 
for the sake of the invested funds. You can not do a better thing.' There 
was occasion for such advice, and I think an influence in the right direction 
has been exerted." 

It is to be remarked that Dr. Tracy's letter must have l)een 
written when the New-York State Society was harmoniously 
actiuf^ to aid the agency of the American Society in making 
collections, and that the letter of the traveling secretary con- 
taining the extract was written after he had attempted to get 
up the "quarrel and split" recommended by Dr. Tracy. 

The annual election took place May 30th, 1868, resulting in 
the reelection of all the officers chosen at the last preceding 
election, who had not deceased, with the single exception of a 
vice-president, who had not for many years attended a meet- 
ing of the board. Subsequently a resolution was passed by 
the board of managers, permitting the continuance of the 
agency of the traveling secretary in the State, and this per- 
mission continued until in February. IStJO, when a resolution 
was passed of which the following is a copy : 

" Besohed, That the American Colonization Society at Washington be and 
is hereby respectfully requested, by the New-York State Colonization Society, 
to transfer Rev. Dr. Orcutt, now laboring in New-York, to another field of 
labor." 

This was sent to the corresponding secretary at Washing- 
ton, and in reply was received a communication of which the 
following is a copy : 

" Resolved, That this committee has received, and considered with deep sen- 
sibility, the resolution passed by the New-York State Colonization Society on 
the 23d day of February last, requesting the withdrawal of Rev. Dr. Orcutt 
from his field of labor in New-York. 

" The basis of the organization of the parent society, its object and aim, is 
colonization of the free people of color in Africa. That requires concentrated 
action and one exclusive body. To that end the whole energies of the society 
must be directed. No portion of its labor is more important than the collec- 
tion of funds, and no part of the country is so available in that respect as the 
State of New-York. 

" Entertaining these views, we deeply regret that the State Society of New. 
York has taken the views expressed in that resolution, for we earnestly desire 
to continue in full harmony with them. 



8 

" But our duty is plain. We can not accede to their request, and ve direct 
Uiat a copy of this resolution he communicated by the corresponding secretary 
to the secretary of that society, as an answer to that resolution." 

This response from the executive committee was received 
with the utmost surprise. The members of onr board of 
managers were disposed to assume tliat the action of the com- 
mittee must have arisen from a misunderstanding of the reha- 
tions of the two societies, and with a disposition to prevent 
the existence of any but the most kindly feeling, determined 
to preserve silence concerning it until the annual meeting 
of the American Society, when they hoped the matter 
could be properly and satisfactorily adjusted. In pursuance of 
this determination a memorial was prepared, passed by the 
Board of Control of the New-York State Society unanimously, 
and signed by the president and secretary of this board, and 
presented to the Board of Directors of the American Society at 
its annual meeting in January, 1870.* 

This memorial that board refused to consider, and uncere- 
moniously laid it upon its table. The American Society has 
thus approved the act of its executive committee in violating 
a compact existing for more than thirty years, and giving no 
reason for it except that it desires to cultivate the Held which 
by that compact it conceded to us. In the annual report of 
its executive committee to the board of directors, a reference 
is made to the rerpiest of this society to the American Society 
to withdraw its agcnc}^ here, and the following statement is 
made in reference to the subject : 

" We also understand that the Board of Manag^ers of the New- York State 
Society was composed sulistantially of new men ; that tliere had been wliat 
might bo called a revolution ; that the old, lontr-tried, {jreat men, who had 
been members, had been turned out, and a new set of men i)ut in. 

* « * -» * * -"- * 

" For years i)ast, that society has not only failed to perform the duties of an 
auxiliary, but has systematically opposed the policy, and attem])ted to defeat 
the plans of the parent society. In doing so, acting with entire indepen- 
dence, adoi)ting and seeking to execute their own plans of operation in dis- 
regard of and against the will of the parent society, they have, as it were, 
separated themselves from it." 

The allegations against this society contained in this extract 
are entirely without foundation, and are calumnious. We have 
learned from a member of the executive committee, that its ac- 

* See Appendix B — Memorial. 



9 



tion was influenced by letters, three of which emanated from 
the traveling secretary of the society referred to ahove. 
These letters only recently came to the knowledge of the 
officers of the New- York State Society. The extract from 
one of these from the traveling secretary, before qnoted, M'ill 
explain the plan Avhicli he, in pursuance of the advice ot 
another stipendiary of the society, had persistently pursued 
since he first came to New- York, under the permission kindly 
and cordially extended to the American society to send an 
agent here until we should renew our work, then temporarily 
suspended. 

There was also an allegation in one of these letters of the 
traveling secretary, that — 

" The amount the parent society received in cash from the New- York State 
Colonization Society since 1849, nearly twenty years, is less than $12,000, and 
the entire amount obtained has not averaged $1000 a year for the last fifteen 
years ;" 

which is simply untrue. In the American Colonization So- 
ciety's official publication, The African Bepository^ there arc 
acknowledgments of moneys received from the Treasurer of the 
New- York State Colonization Society, for the fifteen years 
from January, 184:9, to December, 1SG3, when the latter society 
suspended its agencies, amounting to $26,213.74, as follows : 

1849, Feb. and July $6000 00 

1850, Feb., June, July 7300 00 

1853, Jan., August 3898 02 

1854, May 33 00 

1855, Jan., April 1060 00 

1856, Feb., Sept 2907 67 $26,213 74 

During the same period, nearly as large a sum was received 
from legacies and donations, making the total paid into the 
treasury at Washington, from the State of New-York, over 
$53,000, as the following table, prepared from The African 
Repository^ shows : 



1857, Jan., Feb., Mar., April. $3105 7(5 

1858, Jan 922 90 

1862, Jan 786 39 

1863, Feb 200 00 



1849 $7011 59 

1850 8205 00 

1851.... 425 63 

1852 314 78 

1853 3956 23 

1854 148 30 

1855 2613 87 

1856 14322 26 

1857 7757 27 

This was an average of $3586 per annum, 



1858 $937 73 

1859 1905 56 

1860 3620 99 

1861 1449 29 

1862 ■ 909 66 

1863 220 00 

An aggregate of. .$53,798 16 



10 

In addition to this, during that period the New- York State 
Society obtained educational funds, whicli it now holds, for 
theological and collegiate education, and annually expended 
thousands of dollars in promoting the colonization enter- 
prise, in full accord with the American Colonization So- 
ciety, and with its cordial approbation. It expended large 
sums in assisting the Republic of Liberia to acquire additional 
territory, in order to break up slave factories ; large sums in 
promoting the advancement of its citizens in agriculture, and 
the promotion of the production of sugar and coffee ; and over 
thirteen thousand dollars in the cause of education. It pub- 
lished a valuable paper, circulating 9000 copies monthly, to 
diffuse information concerning the enterprise, awaken the 
interest of the benevolent, and induce them to contribute 
to it. It also employed agents to lecture for the same pur- 
pose, and sent several hundred intelligent and useful men of 
color from the Northern States to help build up a Libcrian na- 
tionality. It is hardly possible tliat the traveling secretary 
was ignorant of these facts. Such an ignorance, if it did exist, 
should have restrained him from the statement made and 
placed before the Executive Committee. 

But however the Executive Committee may have been mis- 
led, the Board of Directors at the annual meeting had the 
facts before them, and permitted the statement of the Execu- 
tive Committee to remain upon its records uncontradicted. 

The further allegation of the Executive Committee that the 
resolution of this society emanated from new men, m'Iio have by 
a revolution displaced " the old, long-tried, great men" who 
had formerly guided its counsels, was utterly at variance with 
the fact. The election in May, 18GS, at which the officers were 
elected who constituted its Board of Managers when the reso- 
lution requesting the withdrawal of the American Society's agent 
w^as passed, and when the refusal of the Executive Committee 
of the American Society was sent to the New-York State So- 
ciety, resulted in the election of the same officers who had been 
elected at tlie previous election in ISGG, and who for several 
successive years before had been, with the exception of those 
removed l)y deatli, or whose places had been vacated by resig- 
nation or removal from their residence, and one vice-president, 



11 

M'lio had not for years attended a meeting oi the board, wliose 
place was filled by another person. It is proper here to 
state that, as it would seem in pursuance of the plan in- 
dicated in the letter of the traveling secretary, he made an 
attempt to prevent the reelection of the corresponding secre- 
tary, and for this purpose intruded himself into a committee 
of the managers appointed according to tlie usual custom of the 
society to make nominations for the election, and there endea- 
vored most earnestly to prevent the nomination ; and afterward, 
on the election day, obtruded himself into the meeting held for 
the purpose, he not being an elector. At this meeting there 
were four members of the society who withdrew ; twelve others 
of long standing earnestly desirous of Dr. Pinney's election, and 
twenty-eight persons who had recently become members, some 
uf them by the contribution of one who had for thirty years 
been a manager of the society, one of the most active of its 
friends, and one of the largest contributors to the enterprise. 
His avowed object was not to create any ^revolution, but to 
prevent a threatened effort to revolutionize the society, and 
to get up " a quarrel and a split," so as to control the trust 
funds of the society. Whether the act was or was not wise, 
it was his act, and not the act of the society or its Board of 
Managers. The result showed his caution was not necessary, 
as the surviving officers, one excepted, were elected with entire 
unanimity, with the exception that a single vote was cast for 
a person not elected. A list of the officers elected in the years 
1865, 1866, and 1868, is here given, which shows that the alle- 
gation in the Executive Conmiittee's report, that there had 
been a revolution and a change of men in the government of 
the New- York State Society is without a semblance of fact. 

Officers of the New-York State Colonization Society for 1865, as published 
in the report of the thirty-third annual meetintr, reelected in 1866 without a 
single change, and holding over in 1867, there being no election in that year 
are as follows : 

President. 

*Rev. Thomas De Witt, D.D. 

Vice- Presidents. 

*William E. Dodge, New-York. *Hon. William C. Alexander, N. Y. 

*Rev. Gardiner Spring, D.D., N. Y. *Hon. Samuel A. Foote, Geneva. 

*Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, D.D., N. Y. *Rev. J. P. Durbin, D.D., New- York. 



12 



James Boorraan, N. Y., deceased. 
Hon. K. H. Walworth, " 

*Hon. D. S. Gre^i^ory, New- Jersey. 
W. P. Van Rensselaer, Westchester. 
*IIirani KetcUuni, Xew-York. 
Hon. Washincrton Hunt, deceased. 
*Hon. Hamilton Fish, New- York. 
*Hon. Edwin D. Morgan, New- York. 
*Jame8 Lenox, New-York. 



*Hemion Camp, Trumansburg. 
*Hon. J. B. Skinner, Wyoming. 
*Rev. Benjamin I. Haight, D.D., N.Y. 
*Rt. Rev. Horatio Potter, D.D., N. Y. 
*Rev. E. S. Janes, D.D., New-York. 
*Moses Allen, New-York. 
*Hon. Horatio Seymoiir, Utica. 
*Hon. Edward Huntinoton, Rome. 
Hon. Henry A. Foster, Oswego. 



Corrcspondinrj Secretary. 
*Rev. John B. Pinney, LL.D., New-York. 

Recording Secretary. 

Joseph B. Collins, New- York, deceased. 

Treasurer. 

*Caleb Swan, New-York. 

Board of Managers. 



Francis Hall, deceased, 
*H. M. Schieffelin, 
*Nathaniel Haydon, 
*W. B. Wedgwood, 
*Rev. S. D. Denison, 
*S. A. Schieffelin, 
*Isaac T. Smith. 
*Hon. James W. Beekman, 
*Tliomas Davenport, 
*Rev. D. B. Coe, D.D., 
C. W. Field, resigned, 
*G. P. Disosway, 
*Rev. John N. McLeod, 
*H. I. Baker, 



^Benjamin H. Field, 

D. D. Williamson, deceased, 

*Lebbeus B. Ward, 

*Anson G. Stokes, 

*Wi]liani Tracy, 

*A. Merwin, 

*Rev. S. D. Alexander, D.D., 

*Sidney E. Morse, 

*Robert M. Hartley, 

*Rev. John C. Lowric, D.D., 

*H. K. Bull, 

*Robert Porterfield, 

*Josoph W. Yates, 

*N. T. Spear. 



Every one of them having a * before his name was reelected in 1868. 
Those without a * Avere those for whom substitutes were elected, as above 
mentioned. 

Copies of tilis list were before tlie Board of Directors of the 
American Colonization Society. Yet tlie statement of the 
E.KCCutive Committee was permitted to become a part of its 
records. 

We submit to our friends whether a benevolent societ}' in- 
corporating in its records such calumnious statements, demon- 
strated to their directors to be unfounded, is not justly repre- 
hensible for the act. 

The Board of Control are persuaded that these allegations 
referred to in the report of the E.xecutive Connnittec had been 
prepared and successfully used prior to the annual meeting to 



IS 

excite a hostility in relation to the New-York State Coloniza- 
tion Society. 

Article five of the constitution of the American society is as 
follows : 

" There sliall be a Board of Directors composed of tlie Directors for life, and 
of Delegates from the several State Societies and Societies for the District of 
Columbia and Territories of the United States. Each of such Societies shall 
be entitled to one delegate for every five hundred dollars paid into the trea- 
sury of this Society within the year ending on the day of the annual 
meeting." 

At the annual meeting, in 1S63, a committee consisting of 
three directors to give an interpretation to this fifth article, 
reported a resolution, which was unanimously passed, as fol- 
lows : 

" Resolved, That, in the opinion of the Board of Directors, the true construc- 
tion of the fifth article of the constitution, which declares ' that each State 
society shall be entitled to one delegate for every five hundred dollars paid 
into the Treasury of the society within the year previous to the annual meet- 
ing,' includes not only all moneys actually remitted by such State Society, but 
all moneys expended by it under the direction or by the authority of this so- 
ciety in writing ; all moneys received during the year from legacies, or other- 
wise, from residents of the particular State ; and that, in making up the ba- 
sis of representation hereafter, the Executive Committee be guided by this 
construction of the fifth article of the constitution. 

'■ Resolved, That all legislation inconsistent herewith be, and the same is 
hereby, repealed." 

In December, 1869, the Secretary of the New- York State 

Society received from the Corresponding Secretary of the 

American Colonization Society a communication, of which the 

following is a copy : 

" Colonization Rooms, Washington, D. C, Dec. 3, 18G9. 
Rev. John B. Pinney, Colonization Rooms, New-Youk : 

" Deak Sir : I beg to invite your attention to the action of the Board of Di- 
rectors of the American Colonization Society of January 22d, 1851, and of- 
January 20th 1853, copies of which have been communijated to your of- 
fice, requesting the respective State Colonization Societies ' to report to the 
Executive Committee of the American Colonization Society, in the month of 
December annually, a statement of their proceedings during the year,' and re- 
commending the appointment of ' such persons as delegates as may give their 
diligent attendance upon their duties as such during the session ' of the Board. 

" The amount received from New-York thus far the present year is : From 
donations and collections for colonization, $8249.57 ; for education in Liberia, 
$1123.16 ; subscriptions to African Repository, $8; and contribution of your 



u 

claim for pro'snsions Bold the late Dr. Snowden, $32.75 ; total, $9418.47, of 
wliicli $7000 were consecrated by the donors to constitute seven gentlemen 
life-directors of the American Colonization Society. Faithfully yours, 

" William Coppingeu, Correspondinrj Secretary A. C. S." 

In pursuance of this couiinunication, the New-York State 
Society, which would be entitled to a much larger delegation, 
appointed six delegates to attend the annual meeting with 
the usual credentials. These credentials, with those of 
other delegates, ^Yerc presented to a standing committee 
on credentials, who reported that the New-York State 
Society's delegates w^ere not entitled to seats, but that a 
new society, not a State Society, not two months old, 
formed on the 27th November, 18G9, in the city of New- York, 
was entitled to the representation. The report was accom- 
panied by an oral address by one of the committee, in which 
he stated as reasons why the committee came to the conclusion 
to reject the delegates from the New- York State Colonization 
Society, the same unfounded allegations which appeared in the 
report of the Executive Conmiittee. The delegates were, how- 
ever, permitted to controvert the allegations, and the matter 
was again referred to a new committee, upon whose report they 
were admitted. It is but just to add that the chairman of the 
first committee, who reported against the admission of the de- 
legates, was one of the committee who, in 1863, reported the 
interpretation of article five, before quoted, and the same per- 
son who wrote to the traveling secretary to " get up a quarrel 
and a split" in the New- York State Society. 

The task of the Board of Control would now be complete, 
hut for considerations gravely affecting the future of the whole 
enterprise, which duty requires should belaid before the friends 
of the cause. 

After the termination of the war of the Rebellion, and when 
the American Society was sending emigrants to Liberia in 
larger munbers than before, the officers of the New- York 
State Colonization Societ}^ received information from Liberia 
indicating that a majority of the recent emigrants were persons 
not fitted by previous habits to become useful citizens, and 
that many of them were in a suffering condition, and were a 
burden rather than a benefit to the republic* The New- York 
* See Appendix C. * 



15 

State Society, therefore, in the summer of 1868, sent its cor- 
responding secretary to Liberia to make a personal examina- 
tion into its condition, its population, schools, churches, indus- 
tries, and productions, so as to enable its friends here to adapt 
their exertions to its needs. He returned in January, 1869, 
and gave a very full statement of his observations, which was 
afterward repeated to the Board of Directors of the American 
Society at Washington, at the annual meeting in that month. 
In his statements he was corroborated by President Roberts, 
who wa^ present. 

lie found that many of the emigrants recently sent were ill 
provided with means to become useful, and some of them were 
already a burden to the citizens ; that the great mass of the 
people were very poor, and from their poverty unable to main- 
tain schools, and that from this cause a very large proportion of 
the children were growing up in ignorance. He also ascer 
tained that there was a willingness on the part of both Liberian 
and aboriginal people to receive teachers and send their chil- 
dren to the schools. Some of the emigrants had become pros- 
perous citizens ; but the agricultural and industrial interests 
were depressed and in need of a more intelligent class of peo- 
ple to develop the resources of the country, promote the jdi'os- 
perity of the republic, and make it, Avhat its friends have ever 
desired it to become, the centre of civilization for Africa. 
The New- York State Society, in view of his observations, re- 
solved that for the present its duty to the enterprise would be 
best fulfilled by devoting its energies particularly to the 
great cause of education,' including within the term the promo- 
tion of the industrial arts and all that tends to forward civiliza- 
tion and the Christian religion ; and that with this view, while 
it would aid such as were fitted for usefulness by skill in the arts 
or in agriculture to emigrate, it w^ould especially seek to 
establish and improve schools for both Liberian and abori- 
ginal children. 

Its Board of Control believes that this course is now impera- 
tively demanded of the friends of the cause, and that the con- 
tributions which may be committed to them for distribution will 
at present do far more good when so expended than by sending 
off very ignorant men and women, some of whom may, under 



16 

their new circumstances, become useful, but a large portion of 
whom will not aid in building up the state, and whose children, 
if uneducated, may relapse into barbarism. The republic has 
received over thirteen thousand emigrants from America. 
They have been encouraged to go to Africa under circum- 
stances which imply an obligation, upon the part of tliose who 
induced them to go thither, to sustain and aid them in efforts at 
self-elevation and usefulness. We believe that this obligation 
demands that we shall not smother out their endeavors to ele- 
vate themselves by throwing upon them, in their feebleness, 
an avalanche of ignorant persons whose faculties have all been 
dwarfed l)y slavery, and who can better, in our own country 
than there, be instructed in the duties of citizens. We do not 
oppose emigration. AYe desire that properl}' prepared emi- 
grants may go there in any numbers, and the board is ready 
to aid in sending out such emigrants from any part of the coun- 
try. But now, when Liberia has a life-struggle with poverty 
and ignorance, we desire to extend a helping hand and aid in 
building her up into a state which shall not only become the 
civilizer of Africa, but an inviting home for the descendants of 
all her sons ever ravished by the slave-trader from her shores. 
In this we simply follow the original purpose of the founders 
of this society, stated in the second article of its constitution, 

as follows: 

" The object of this society shall be to colonize, with tlit-ir own consent, 
])cople of color of the United States on the coast of Africa, and throiifjh them 
to cicUize and Christianize the African tribes, and also generally to inqrrove 
the condition of the colored jyopidatiun of our country." 

And in the second section of its charter, granted by the 

State of New- York : 

" The particular business and objects of the said society are to provide the 
ways and means, and to manage, appropriate, and apply the same, to colonize 
with their own consent, people of color of the United States on the coast of 
Africa, and through them to civilize the African tribes, and also generally to 
improve the condition of the colored population of our country, by appointing 
and sustaining agencies, diffusing information, co^^ectt^y, receiving, appropriat. 
ing, or investing funds foi' pu7-poses of education, in its various branches, 
among people of color of our country, heretofore colonized, or hereafter to be 
colonized, in Africa, and by other measures conducive to the objects of 
African colonization." 

The purpose which we have always followed, and one which 
has somewhat differed from that of the American Colonization 



17 

Society, which was as we have above stated. In carrying out 
this purpose, we endeavored to supplement what necessarily 
that society could not do, and thus hitherto our efibrts were 
prosecuted in harmony. That society has now repudiated the 
compact made and existing with us for thirty years, and insists 
upon occupying our field to obtain money simply to promote 
what it deems its appropriate work — the colonization of negroes 
from this country. 

-i^^We therefore, reluctantly yielding to their determination 
propose to afford the friends of the negro race everywhere an 
opportunity to aid in building up the Republic of Liberia, 
and making it attractive as the home of colored people, so that 
emigration to that country may soon be governed by the 
same laws and conditions which influence the emigration 
of other peoples. In promoting this object, we desire the 
cooperation of those friends of Liberia who may feel with 
us that the cause, as we view it, is worthy of their confi- 
dence. We shall prosecute it with our best endeavors. To 
secure funds for these ends, the Board of Control will feel 
grateful if the corresponding secretary of the society, the Rev. 
Dr. Pinney, shall be welcomed and aided by the benevolent 
and religious public, as in former years. He has given a large 
part of his life to this cause, and he enjoys the undiminished 
confidence and ^esteem of the board. [If, however, it shall 
appear that we mistake the proper measures to do good to the- 
persecuted sons of Africa, we shall, after a fair trial, leave the- 
responsibility with the benevolent public, dismiss all our paid 
officers, and devote ourselves simply to the care of the funds 
for the support of collegiate and theological education which 
by the hand of Providence have been committed to us. 



APPENDIX 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THE AMERICAN AND STATE COLONI- 
ZATION SOCIETIES— THEIR RELATIONS TO EACH OTHER AND 
THEIR SEPARATE FIELDS. 

The American Colonization Society was org^anized on the first of January, 
1817, in Washington City, and conducted with the help of auxiliary State, 
county, city, and local societies organized throughout the Union. Tlieir 
colony having been established at Cape Mesurado and vicinity, was called 
Liberia. At the annual meeting of the society, January, 1834, it appeared 
that it was heavily in debt, and that extensive dissatisfaction existed as to its 
management. Tlie State Society of Maryland had, early in 1833, commenced 
an independent colony at Cape Palmas, now Maryland County ; this was fol- 
lowed by an independent colony at Bassa, established by the New-Yorls City 
Colonization Society, and the Young Men's Colonization Society of Pennsyl- 
vania, now Bassa County ; and subsequently a colony was established at 
Sinou River, founded and governed by the State societies of Mississippi and 
Louisiana, now Sinou County ; these four colonies now constitute the present 
Republic of Liberia. 

On page two of the January number of The African Repository, published 
in 1839 by the American Colonization Society, is the following : 

" New Organization. — The friends of African colonization will learn from 
the proceedings of the parent society at its last annual meeting that a radical 
change has been effected in the oldest and the principal organ of the cause. 
The separate efforts of auxiliary and independent societies had for several 
years past produced a state of things which called loudly for measures for 
combining tliem into some general plan of operation, ickicli should give full scope 
to the peculiar advantages of State action, and at the same time secure concert 
and harmony between themselves and other agents of the colonizing princi- 
ple. To devise such a plan was as difficult as it was necessary. That select- 
el was, like the Constitution of the United States, the result of compromise 
and concession." 

And on page twenty-four of the same number, in the fifth article of the 
constitution, it says, in section four, 

" There sliall bo a board of directors composed of delegates froni the seve- 
ral State societies, and societies for the District of Columbia and Territories of 
the United States." 

And in the fifth section. 



19 

" The board shall have power to organize and administer a general govern- 
ment, to provide a uniform code of laws for such colonies, and manage the 
general affiiirs of colonization throughout the United States, except loithiii the 
States iohich planted colonies." 

And for thirty yeafs from this date, namely, from 1839 to 1869, the Ameri- 
can Colonization Society carefully abstained from making any collections in 
the State of New- York. 



B. 

MEMORIAL. 

To THE Board of Directors of the American Colonization Society : 
The New- York State Colonization Society, which has for many years acted 
in concert with the American Colonization Society in the great work of pro- 
moting African colonization, and as one of its auxiliaries, begs leave to lay 
before your respected body certain facts and considerations which are regard- 
ed by the New- York State Society as tending to disturb the harmony of the 
two societies, and, unless disposed of, to diminish the usefulness and efficiency 
of both. 

The relations of the two societies for many years have been such as to unite 
the friends of colonization in the States formerly slaveholding, as well as in 
the non-slaveholding States, in the general enterprise, although they regard- 
ed its effects from different points of view ; the slaveholding community 
generally looking at it as an obvious means for removing the free negroes, 
and those who might be emancipated by their owners, from the United 
States to a country where they might obtain a livelihood ; and the people of 
the Northern States who were friendly to the enterprise regarding it as one 
of benevolence to the negro, as preparing a way for general emancipation, and 
that the persons removed should 'themselves be elevated by Christianizing ef- 
forts, and, in their turn, should extend Christianizing and civilizing influences 
to the native tribes of Africa. The constitutions of the two societies, for many 
years, have indicated the different spheres their friends occupied. That of the 
American Society, and its charter, were limited in their purposes to the coloniz- 
ing of free blacks. This fact, at an early day, was held up by the opponents of 
the enterprise in the Northern States as evidence that the scheme was simply 
one to expatriate the negroes in the United States, and leave them helpless 
upon a barbarian shore ; and they arrayed many friends of the negro in hos- 
tility to it. It becoming necessary to meet this fact, or to abandon all efforts 
in tlie cause among the benevolent of the Northern States, the constitution of 
the New-York State Society was modified witli a view to remove in that State 
all grounds of the objection, and to make the society a strictly benevolent one, 
whose purposes should be to benefit the negro, elevate his condition, and, by 
his aid, extend civilization and Christianity to Africa, i In this manner, the 
friends of colonization in the North could operate harmoniously in connection 
with those whose purpose was less distinctly benevolent, and supplement 
what was wanting in the declared object of the American Colonization So- 
ciety. 



20 

A reference to the constitution and charters of the two societies in respect 
to tliis feature will illustrate the position. 

Article 2 of the constitution of the American Colonization Society declares, 

" The object to wliich its attention is to he exclusively directed is to promote 
and execute a plan for colonizing', with their own consent, the free people of 
color residing in our country in Africa," etc. 

Its charter, granted by the Legislature of Maryland, in its first section, limits 
its power " to dispose of, according to the by-laws and ordinances regulating 
the same, now or hereafter to be prescribed, all such lands, tenements, or 
hereditaments, money, goods, or chattels, as they shall determine to be most 
conducive ^(> the colonizing, with their own consent, in Africa, of the free peo- 
ple of color residing in the United States, and for no other uses or purposes 
whatsoever." 

The constitution of the New- York State Society declares its purposes as fol- 
lows : 

" The object of this society shall be to colonize, with their own consent, peo- 
ple of color of the United States on the coast of Africa, and through them to 
civilize and Christianize the African tribes, and also generally to improve the 
condition of the colored population of our country." 



The second section of its charter, granted by the Legislature of the State 
provides that, 

"The particular business and objects of the said society are to provide the 
ways and means, and to manage, appropriate, and apply the same, to colonize, 
with their own consent, people of color of the United States on the coast of 
Africa, and through them to civilize the African tribes, and also generally to 
improve t7ie condition of the colored population of our country by appointing 
and sustaining agencies, diffusing information, collecting, receiving, appropriat- 
ing, or investing funds for purposes of education, in its various branches, 
among people of color of our country, heretofore colonized, or hereafter to be 
colonized, in Africa, and by other measures conducive to the objects of African 
colonization." 

At the time of the compact, which still exists in force, formed between the 
New-York State Society and the American Colonization Society, in December, 
1838, it was believed by the friends of the cause that their harmonious action^ 
each limiting its operations to its declared objects, would promote the general 
enterprise, conciliate the feelings entertained toward it, and render the cflforts 
of both more efficient for good. And there was no reason why they could not 
so operate together. It was a part of this compact that the New-York State 
Society should occupy its own territory exclusively, and leave the American 
Society to occupy the fields not occupied by other State societies. This com- 
pact continued to be recognized and observed by both societies down to 1868. 

In 18GG, a communication was received by the New- York State Colonization 
Society from the American Colonization Society, of which the'followiug is a 
copy : 



21 



" Colonization Rooms, Washington, D. C, Aug. 29, 1860. 

" My Dear Sir : Yours of the 37th ult. came duly, and was submitted to 
the Executive Committee at their next meeting. Without taking any formal 
action on it, they desired me to say to you that we, at present, are in very 
great need of money. We have applications for passage, etc., from upward 
of six hundred persons, to sail the 1st November. We have no ship of our 
own. We shall be obliged to charter two to take all who want to go. To 
pay expenses, we shall require some thirty thousand dollars. We are looking 
for it from every source ; but it comes slowly. That five hundred dollars left 
by David Magie will help. If, therefore, your society will relinquish in our 
favor, we will give your society credit for it, will use it to help pay expenses 
of these people, and it will give you a basis of one delegate to the Board of Di- 
rectors ; or we will relinquish in favor of your society if you will send us the 
money to pay the expenses of these people, and will still form a basis for one 
delegate to the board. 

" The great question now before our committee is, What shall we do with all 
the people who want us to send them the 1st November? Some weeks ago, 
we said, ' Yes, we will send all worthy persons who will go ;' when we 
were sending them documents, and writing to our friends, and doing all we 
could to wake them up. Now more than six hundred of them have come and 
are asking us to send them. Where is the money ? To send six hundredj 
at the low average of $50 each, will take $30,000. 

" In view of this, and of the urgent necessity that we should send all who 
want to go, the Executive Committee have determined to make a special ap. 
peal to the Pennsylvania Colonization Society and the New-York State Colo- 
nization Society, each to assume the expenses of colonizing one hundred of 
these people. This will encourage us to go forward ; and we believe it will 
help you to raise the money. How long our friends have been saying, ' Yes ; 
certainly I will give if the people will go ! But they will not go.' Now is 
the time to prove them. Our friends ought to know how many people are 
now wanting us to send them ; not to know it through the public papers, but 
by direct face-to-face talk, or by private letter and appeal through the post- 
ofBce. 

" You are aware that the Board of Directors have forbidden us to make such 
appeals in States where there are societies. If it were not for this, and if the 
State societies were willing that we should plow in their fields, we should at 
once issue to our friends everywhere a call for aid ; and I believe we should 
get it, get it liberally, and somewhat in the manner we did on a former occa- 
sion for the Herndon slaves ! The great States of Pennsylvania, New-York, 
and Massachusetts used to be our main dependence in such emergencies ! 

" May I ask the favor of you, therefore, to call a special meeting of your 
board without delay, and get them to assume the expenses of one hundred of 
these people ? We believe that, if you go to your friends in the city alone 
with all the circumstances of the case, and that you have made this pledge, 
you can get the money by the middle of October. 

" If your board decline to assume the amount, will you allow us to send a 
special private call to any body in^your State whom we may select ? Some- 



22 

tliinof ouglit to be done, and done speedi]y too. Tlie occasion is one tliat ouglit 
not to be let slip. Yours most respectfully, 

* " William McLain, Financial Secretary A. C. S. 
"J. M. Goldberg, Esq., New- York Col. Soc, New- York." 

A resolution was thereupon passed by the New- York State Colonization So- 
ciety, on the tenth of September, 1866, in the following form : 

" The secretary stated the object of the meeting to be to consider a circular 
from the parent society asking us to assist in obtaining funds to defray the 
expenses of sending six hundred emigrants to Liberia. After consideration, 
the board, having an impression that the parent society held a large amount 
of funds, on motion, the chairman was requested to write to Mr. McLain that 
such is our belief, and that, as we have none but trust funds, we are not pre" 
pared to contribute the $5000 asked for any organization prepared for the pur- 
pose ; but that, in the event of the American Society not having ample funds 
for the object, this society will not object to the American Society sending a 
collecting agent to our field, provided the funds collected be paid over to our 
treasurer, with the understanding that said sum shall be directed to defraying 
the expenses of the emigrants named." 

A copy of this resolution was inclosed to the American Colonization Society 
in a letter, of which the following is a copy : 

"Colonization Office, New- York, Sept. 12, 1866. 
Eev. William McLain, D.D., Financial Secretary A. C. S., Washing- 
ton, D. C. : 

" Dear Sir : I inform you now more fully in regard to the meeting of the 
Board of Directors of tlie New-York State Colonization Society, held on the 
lOtli instant, to consider the matters contained in your letter of the 20th ult. 

" You are aware that our system of collections has, for the last four years, 
been to a great degree suspended, and we now have no agents in the field. 
Our funds consist entirely of trust moneys devoted by their donors to educa- 
tional purposes, and we are, therefore, without means to meet your proposition 
to assume the expenses of one hundred of the emigrants to Africa now asking 
assistance. We are, however, desirous to do what, under the circumstances' 
wo ouglit ; and if the parent society has not sufficient means to send the whole 
number applying, we shall cheerfully adopt measures to meet the emiirgency* 
Will you, therefore, please to inform us of the amount of means the National 
Society has, not held in trust for specific purposes other than to assist in colo- 
nization? This information, with a statement of the numbers and localities 
of the persons proposing to emigrate, will assist us in such measures as may 
be proper for us to take. 

" If it shall be found necessary to raise moneys in this State to aid the parent 
society before we recommence our agencies, the board will consent that the 
parent society may send its agents to make collections here, with the under- 
standing that such collections be regarded as made through the State society, 
aud be appropriated solely to the colonization of emigrants. 

" We are expecting the desire to emigrate will soon reappear among our 
own colored population, and that all our efforts will then bere(iuired to obtain 
means sufficient to aid them. Tlie arrangement wo may make with you will, 



23 

therefore, of necessity, be but temporary, as we must, -witli the renewal of the 
desire to emigrate, recommence our own system of agencies. 

" We shall be happy to hear from you as soon as practicable, by letter, 
addressed to Joseph B. Collins, Esq., Treasurer, at No. 40 Wall street. 

" By order of the board, 

"J. M. GoLDBEKG, Secretary." 

On the day after sending the letter, Mr. Goldberg, fearing that the officers 
of the American Colonization Society might have misapprehended his letter, 
wrote a second, of which the following is a copy : 

" Colonization Eoojis, New-York, Sept. 13, I860. 
" Rev. William McLain, D.D., Washington : 

" My Dear Sir : In my letter of yesterday, in reference to the raising of 
funds in this State in aid of the Southern emigrants to be sent by the parent 
society tliis fall, I forgot distinctly to say that, in the event permission should 
be given you by our board to send collecting agents into our field, the ruoney 
to be collected by your agents in this State has to pass through the hands of 
our treasurer. 

" Such is the resolution of our board. 

" Yours, J. M. Goldberg." 

These papers constituted the only consent or leave given to the American 
society to send an agent to canvass for contributions in the State of New- York, 
prior to a resolution hereafter mentioned passed. 

In the year 1867, the Rev. Dr. Orcutt, the traveling secretary of the Ame- 
rican Society, came to New-York to raise funds. As the New-York State So- 
ciety had then no agent, and its corresponding secretary, Rev. Dr. Pinney, 
was upon leave of absence and receiving no salary, no objection was made to 
the collection of moneys here, the New-York Society presuming that the Ame- 
rican Society sent the secretary here subject to the conditions of that letter 
j ust quoted. He was welcomed by the officer of the New- York State Society, 
and the names of persons accustomed to contribute to its treasury were freely 
furnished him, with every aid that could be afforded to make collections. 

At the meeting succeeding the election held June 16th, 1868, a resolution was 
passed in its board of directors, by the casting vote of the^presiding officer, 
in the following form : 

" Besolmd, That the traveling secretary of the'American Colonization So- 
ciety be recognized as authorized to counsel with the friends of the coloniza- 
tion cause in this State, and to aid the agents of this society in giving 
information and obtaining collections to meet the 'urgent demands of the 
parent society in sending off emigrants during the current year, and that the 
election of G. P. Disosway as an agent for that purpose, at a meeting held in 
March last, is hereby sanctioned ; it being understood that the f uuds forwarded 
pass to the credit of this society, and the receipt therefor be filed with the 
treasurer." 

In pursuance of such resolution. Dr. Orcutt continued to canvass for collec- 
tions in the State and city of New-York, in no instance paying them through 
the treasurer of our society, as required by the original permission to the 



24 

American Colonization Society to send an agent to this State. Mr. Disosway 
died in July, 1868. 

The Board of Managers of the New-York State Society in July, 1868, deem- 
ing it necessary for the purpose of obtaining information of the condition of 
the Republic of Liberia, and its wants, passed a resolution directing its cor- 
responding secretary, Dr. Pinney, to visit Liberia and ascertain the condition 
of the population, industries, schools, and churches. He accordingly left, and 
remained absent until the month of January, 1869. During this time, as the 
New-York State Society had no collecting agents in the field, the arrange- 
ments provided for in its resolution of June 16th, 1868, continued. 

After Dr. Finney's return, the board of managers of that society, impressed 
with the conviction that it was now their duty to proceed with its operations 
in the field conceded to it by the compact with your society, on the 23d of 
February, 1869, passed the following resolution : 

" Hesoloed, That the American Colonization Society at Washington be and 
is hereby respectfully requested, by the New-York State'Colonization Society, 
to transfer Rev. Dr. Orcutt, now laboring in New-York, to another field of 
labor." 

A copy was communicated to the Corresponding Secretary of the American 
Colonization Society, and in answer to it a reply in the words following was 
received : 

" Resolved, That this committee has received, and considered with deep sen- 
sibility, the resolution passed by the New- York State Colonization Society on 
the 23d day of February last, requesting the withdrawal of Rev. Dr. Orcutt 
from his field of labor in New-York. 

" The basis of the organization of the parent society, its object and aim, is 
colonization of the free people of color in Africa. Tliat requires concentrated 
action and one exclusive body. To that end the whole energies of the society 
must be directed. No portion of its labor is more important than the collec- 
tion of funds, and no part of the country is so available in that respect as the 
State of New-York. 

" Entertaining these views, we deeply regret that the State Society of New- 
York has taken the views expressed in that resolution, for we earnestly desire 
to continue in full harmony with them. 

" But our duty is plain. We can not accede to their request ; and wo direct 
that a copy of this resolution be communicated by tlie corresponding secretary 
to the secretary of that society, as an answer to that resolution." 

The Now- York Society regarded the reply as a violation of tlie compact be- 
tween the two societies, the obligation of which was recognized by the letter 
from your financial secretary of August, 1866, herein before copied ; but being 
unwilling to lay before the world the spectacle of a difference between two 
societies professing to be engaged in a work of benevolence, its board of 
directors concluded quietly to submit to the action of the executive committee 
of your society until the matter could l)e laid before the annual meeting, con- 
fident that when the representatives of the whole society should be present 
tlie error would bo corrected, and whatever might be just in relation to the 
matter would be done. 

The New-York State Society would further call your attention to a resolu- 



25 

tion of tlie American Society, passed at its meeting in January, 18G9, on mo- 
tion of Rev. Dr. Orcutt, in tlie following words : 

" Resolved, That it is of the utmost importance to the successful prosecution 
of the work that all the auxiliaries of this society should come up to the exi- 
gencies of the occasion, by enlarging their contributions and awakening an 
increased interest in their respective regions ; and we recommend the forma- 
tion of auxiliary societies in the States and parts of the country where none 
now exist, and wh.ere it is thought the cause would be thereby promoted." 

And it would also call to your attention the duties of the traveling secre- 
tary, as set forth in the resolution constituting that office passed January 17th, 
1856: 

" Resolved, That there shall be a traveling secretary, whose duty it shall be 
to visit, as often as practicable, and as the interests of the society shall require, 
the States and Territories of the United States, to promote by his personal 
agency the establishment and activity of State and Territorial societies, auxi- 
liary to the American Colonization Society, and to superintend the collection 
of emigrants, and their transportation to their respective places of embarka- 
tion." 

The New- York State Society submits that^it [was the obvious intent of the 
resolution of January, 1869, that the traveling secretary should, under the 
direction of the executive committee, visit the States where no auxiliary so- 
cieties exist, and endeavor there to awaken an interest in the common enter- 
prise rather than that he sbould remain in the State of New- York, against the 
wishes of this society, where the public interest had been aroused and sus- 
tained for years by its officers, that society numbering among its members 
and managers those who for many years have contributed their money, 
influence, and talents to the cause of colonization, and whose feelings are 
warmly interested in its success. 

They further state, that from copies of the'official correspondence between 
the traveling secretary and the office at Washington, it is very manifest that 
the conduct of the traveling secretary has been influenced to a very consider- 
able degree by a hostility to the New- York society, and a wish to destroy its 
influence, and they believe that the executive committee have been misled by 
erroneous representations to pursue a course which with a full knowledge of 
the facts they would never have done. 

They therefore respectfully request the Board of Directors of the American 
Colonization Society to take such action as may be just in the premises, and 
especially, in pursuance of the compact between the two societies, to withdraw 
all agencies from the State of New-York, and leave its territory to be can- 
vassed by the New-York State Society's agents. They do this in the confi - 
dent hope that such a measure will add to the strength of the cause of 
colonization, promote the redemption of Africa, and the welfare and elevation 
of the negro race. 

James W. Beekman, President. 

J. B. PiNNET, Corresponding Secretary. 
Dated December 21, 1869. 



26 



LETTERS FROM MISSIONARIES, CLERGYMEN, AND LEGISLA- 
TORS OF LIBERIA CONCERNING EMIGRANTS. 

" LoTSViLLE, Pa., June 13, 1867. 

" Dear Sir : Yours of June 4th came to hand a few days ago. What I 
said to George P. Ockershausen, Esq., relative to the propriety of sending 
colored men to Liberia, and their sufferings there, was not said in regard to 
any particular emigration, but in regard to all who have been sent out during 
the last four years. I will state some facts to you, as I stated them to Mr 
George P. Ockershausen. 

" An emigration is started from America with sufficient food for the voyage 
and to last them six months in Liberia. This food is not of the best quality. 
When the emigrants arrive on the coast of Liberia, they are at once put into 
receptacles, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty in one house. The 
flour, haras, butter, cheese, and other articles become stale, rancid, and worray 
in about two months after their arrival. Many are taken down with chills 
and fever during the first month, and all will suffer, if not in the first, during 
the second month. They will have no or very few nurses. Only one physi- 
cian to attend them, who has a field of fifteen miles square besides. Fre- 
quently the doctor has but a small supply of medicine. The house becomes 
very filthy, and, under these circumstance, I think I cau safely say about one 
fourth die during the first six months. 

" When the six months have expired, those who are still surviving are re- 
quired to leave the receptacle. But now they have no houses, and are in a 
feeble state ; are, for the most part, without money ; hence they generally put 
up or have put up a native thatch house, with no floor. Now, too, they have 
no food, and in their feeble state must begin to clear off some land and put 
down potatoes and cassada, and other vegetables. Here they again suffer 
very much, and many die during the remaining part of the first year. 

" Those who live must now depend for a livelihood on the productions of 
the earth. But inasmuch as all labor must be performed by liand, it is ex- 
ceedingly difficult for a man to make a decent living from the productions of 
the earth. Coffee is the only thing that will pay ; but it will not begin to 
pay until six years after being planted. 

" The schools of Liberia are very poor. This does not come under the head 
of sufferings ; but I make this statement simply because men have given dif- 
ferent representations in this country. In short, I do not believe it is right 
to send a set of ignorant men away from a country where they enjoy the advan- 
tages of schools and churches, and enjoy health, and can make a decent living, 
to a deadly climate, where there are but few schools and churches, and where 
they must live in poverty and distress all their lives. 

" I have no right to dictate to the Colonization Society ; but it would be infi. 
nitely better if, instead of sending a poor, ignorant class of persons to a heathen 
land, where, by surrounding influences, they become still more degraded, and 
where they Bufl'er, and many in a short time die, It would send teachers and 
preachers out to educate and Christianize those who are there. As a general 
thing, the colonists are about as ignorant and superstitious as the heathen 



27 

themselves. By the emigration sent out last fall, of between six hundred and 
seven hundred, not one teacher and only one preacher was sent ; the latter 
died on the passage out. 

" It is argued that the'colonists will have a civilizing influence upon the 
heathen. I have seen no such influence exerted by the ignorant masses sent 
to Liberia. 

" I am a friend of the colored race, and will do all I can for its elevation. I 
make the statements, not that I have any pique against the society, but as 
facts. If you have any questions to ask, I will answer. I would be glad to 
meet you and discuss the matter personally ; but it is not likely that I will be 
in New- York soon. The Colonization Society has been a popular society, and 
men have been afraid to reveal facts. Hon. Mr. Hanson, now in eternity, was not 
favorable to colonization ; but in his address, a few years'ago, at Washington, 
he evaded the dark side of the picture. I was personally acquainted with 
him, and we frequently spoke of these things at Monrovia. The best way to 
raise Liberia is to send educated, energetic men there, to elevate thejgreat 
mass of colonists there now, and aid in raising up a native nationality. The 
natives, if properly trained, will make just as good citizens" as the ignorant 
men sent from here ; and why thrust these poor, ignorant classes into a coun- 
try in which they are always dissatisfied and are anxious to come ' home,' (to 
America.) Yours most truly, ." 



" Monrovia, October 30, 1867. 
" My Dear Sir : Your two letters, via the English mail, came to hand in 
due time. I was very glad to hear from you. I have just returned here from 
Cape Mount, where I have been for several weeks, arranging to have our 
emigrants removed from Robertsport to our new settlement on the river. We 
lost some thirty-eight of our company, the half of which number being in- 
fants and youths, however. Those emigrants who are alive appear to be in 
good spirits, and manifest a determination to go to work and make for them- 
selves a comfortable home. We have had an unusually rainy season, so that 
all our rivers about Cape Mount were full to overflowing. The rice crops are 
nevertheless good ; and harvesting, which commenced in September, is now 
nearly over. 



Liberia, Nov. 11, 1867. 
Dear Sir : . . Careysburg is, without doubt, the most healthy district 
in Liberia ; but the emigrants that come to the country now are poorer than 
any that ever came to the country before. The provisions and medical care 
given by the society are not sufiicient. I would rather see no more ever come 
here than have them come and suffer and die as they have lately. I intended 
a year ago to have written on that subject at length. 



" Liberia, May 23, 1868. 
" My Dear Sir : . . . I hear that a large company of emigrants is ex- 
pected out in the ship Golconda. It would be well to begin to select them. 



28 

as nine tenths that come over nowadays are almost objects of charity. We 
see the lame, the halt, and the naked comino^ ; while we welcome all to their 
fatherland, yet we wish them to come to it provided with common necessaries 
of life to begin with. Very respectfully yours." 

The following letters, some received wliile Dr. Pinney was 
absent, and others recently, corroborate the above : 

" Monrovia, August 24, 1868. 

" My Deak Sir : Finding Captain Webber here, on the eve of sailing for 
Boston, I concluded to write you a few lines, in addition to what I wrote by 
the Golconda. 

" Speaking of the mortality among the emigrants to Cape Mount and the 
probable reasons, I would say that it is traceable to two things, mainly : 

" 1. In the insufficiency in the salary of the physician. On ray arrival, I 
found Dr. Cooper there employed for six months only, at a salary of $500 for 
that time, [to care for and attend to one hundred and sixty newly-arrived 
emigrants ; and at the expiration of the stipulated time he withdrew and 
went to Monrovia, leaving the people sick and dying. Emigrants need the 
care and attention of the physicians for months after their first six months 
have expired. They should have medical aid for at least twelve months 
gratis, if required. 

" The second reason is, that the emigrants of these days are poorly equipped. 
They come out here poor, with no prospects of bettering their condition either 
for years ; and these are years of toil and poverty ; they naturally become des- 
pondent, being sick with a family to support and no visible means to do it 
with, the men sink under their trouble and die. Dr. Cooper had to clothe 
one third of them to make them any ways comfortable during their illness. 
The prospect of building up our country with emigrants from America under 
such disadvantages, is very poor indeed. In fact, it ought not to be encourag- 
ed ; for one half of them become dissatisfied and pray to return, or else become 
burthensome to the communities where they are located. The whole system 
must be changed, or emigration stopped for the present ; for, if continued as at 
present, the results will be disastrous beyond conception in a few years. Then 
there is nothing for them to do. All can not go to farming, and even farmers 
must have means to commence with. To build up our country, wo need 
means to encourage industry of all kinds. We must not only produce more 
than we can consume, but we must also manufacture the greater part of the ne- 
cessaries we use. In short, Liberia must be built up of the present materials, 
so as not only to afford an asylum for our brethren abroad, but a home for 
them where they can make a living and find ready employment. 

" We need also educational fadHtu'S. This has been too much neglected. 
The government is not, nor will not be able to educate the masses for years to 
come. The Missionary Society are gradually withdrawing their schools from 
us and looking forward to the day when the people themselves will take this 
matter in hand. Now, sir, if these things are to continue as they are, and 
large numbers of ignorant and pauper emigrants are poured in upon us, you 
can j udge what our end will be. 



29 

" Monrovia, October_6, 1869. 

" My Dear Sir : . . . We have also seen Mr. Orcutt's letter in ' answer 
to Dr. Durbin.' All tlie thinking men here regard with regret the publica- 
tion of such a letter. And the promise of Mr. Orcutt to continue to send us in 
the future such emigrants as have been sent within the last four or five years, 
fills us with horror. General Howard certainly wrote hastily Avhen he charac- 
terized such emigrants as ' the cream of the colored population.' You your- 
self know from personal observation the miserable condition of the recent 
emigrants to Liberia ; and I am quite sure that, if Mr. Orcutt knew the facts 
in the case, if he could see the suffering which the recent emigrants have un- 
dergone and are now undergoing in consequence of the unprepared mental 
and bodily state in which they came here, he would not, as a Christian philan- 
thropist, persist in propagating the views held forth in his letter of July 9th, 
1869, unless indeed his policy be to get emigrants and money, at all hazards 
on the principle, ' Rem, recte si possis, sed quocunque modo, rem^ 

" I do think that no man has a right to throw forth to the world his crude, 
hasty, and undigested notions on matters of such moment, especially if those 
notions are likely to afiect a large circle of important interests, involving large 
outlays of money and the lives of hundreds of people. If men will not qualify 
themselves by careful, patient inquiry, and earnest reflection, before they pre- 
sume to propound independent opinions, let them take care lest they be found 
to fight against the suggestions of the Most High." 



" Monrovia, January, 1870. 
" Dear Sm : . . . I can not understand those colonizationists who put them- 
selves in opposition to your educational movement. They seem to me 
utterly blind. Let them come here and look at the miserable, thriftless, help- 
less slavery-victims they have sent to Liberia, and they will see in a moment 
that much of their effort of late, that is, in collecting money and hurrying 
emigrants here, has been but pouring out water upon the ground. Some of 
these poor creatures are so utterly weak that they can not stand up even in 
the presence of paganism. Down they go at once and sink into heathen 
habits. Not a few of these creatures strip off their clothes and go into the 
country. Six weeks ago, a girl came to my house, with chalk-marks upon 
her face, rings on her wrists, and her clothing about one half-yard of cloth 
around her loins ! A few minutes' conversation served to show that she was 
an American ! Only a fortnight before she had thrown aside her clothes and 
adopted country habits ! There are scores of such men and women in the 
country, and unless something extraordinary is done, many more will do the 
same. The grand preventive is education and religion. Dr. Finney's effort, 
if successful, will prove the salvation of Liberia.* May God give the New- 
York society every measure of success." 

• To secure means to extend common schools among the whole population of Liberia, 
coipnists and natives. 



54 













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